Micromax Canvas A1 (AQ4501) is one of the three smartphones in the Google's Android One lineup that was launched last month. We already brought you the review of the Spice Dream UNO Mi-498, the cheapest of the lot, which is available from Flipkart. The Micromax Canvas A1 is slightly costlier than the Dream UNO and is exclusively available from Amazon. All the Android One smartphones have the same specifications, is the Canvas A1 any different in terms of the performance? Let us find out.
Unboxing
We unboxed the smartphone few weeks back, check out the Micromax Canvas A1 unboxing.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpwSwkYDjwU
Box Contents
Micromax Canvas A1 in black
2-pin charger (5V-1A)
micro USB cable
Standard headset with microphone
Scratch guard
1700mAh battery
User manual and warranty card
Micromax also bundles a free 8GB Strontium microSD card with all the orders on Amazon.
Display, Hardware and Design
All the Android One smartphones have a 4.5-inch FWVGA display at a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of about 218 ppi. The resolution is less compared to the Moto E, which has 256 ppi screen. The display is bright and the sunlight legibility is decent, but not the best. It doesn't have a scratch resistant glass that is present in other budget smartphones such ...
Micromax Canvas A1 (AQ4501) is one of the three smartphones in the Google's Android One lineup that was launched last month. We already brought you the review of the Spice Dream UNO Mi-498, the cheapest of the lot, which is available from Flipkart. The Micromax Canvas A1 is slightly costlier than the Dream UNO and is exclusively available from Amazon. All the Android One smartphones have the same specifications, is the Canvas A1 any different in terms of the performance? Let us find out.
Unboxing
We unboxed the smartphone few weeks back, check out the Micromax Canvas A1 unboxing.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpwSwkYDjwU
Box Contents
Micromax Canvas A1 in black
2-pin charger (5V-1A)
micro USB cable
Standard headset with microphone
Scratch guard
1700mAh battery
User manual and warranty card
Micromax also bundles a free 8GB Strontium microSD card with all the orders on Amazon.
Display, Hardware and Design
All the Android One smartphones have a 4.5-inch FWVGA display at a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of about 218 ppi. The resolution is less compared to the Moto E, which has 256 ppi screen. The display is bright and the sunlight legibility is decent, but not the best. It doesn't have a scratch resistant glass that is present in other budget smartphones such ...
Hewlet-Packard (HP) is splitting in two companies, according to a latest report from Th Wall Street Journal. The company will be divided in two entities, one focusing on the business of personal computers and printers and the other on enterprise hardware and services.
Founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939, HP is a computing juggernaut of the the Silicon Valley and has more than 3 lakh employees. The report said that as a result of the split, Meg Whitman would chair the PC and printer business while serving as CEO of the enterprise company. Dion Weisler would remain the executive vice president of printing and personal systems along with the added responsibility of being the new CEO. This would lead to HP director Patricia Russo to chair the enterprise business.
The split, which is expected to be finalized next year, would involve a tax-free distribution of shares to stockholders. The PC and printer businesses represent about half HP's annual turnover, and pulled in $55.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2013, according to the WSJ. Its sales fell by 7.1 percent in competition with Lenovo in a tough PC market. However, HP's total revenues fell by 6.7 percent, so the PC and printer businesses ...
Upcoming Samsung Galaxy Core Prime (SM-G360) smartphone was listed on Flipkart few hours back at Rs. 8499, before the price was removed, but the listing still exists. It has a 4.5-inch display, powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and runs on Android 4.4 (Kitkat). It has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
Samsung Galaxy Core 2 with a similar 4.5-inch display went on sale in India back in July for Rs.11,900, but this got a price cut recently to Rs. 8007. Compared to the Core 2's 768MB RAM and 4GB of internal storage, this has 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The Chinese variant listed on TENAA mentions LTE support too. The listing was first spotted by GSMArena.
Samsung Galaxy Core Prime specifications
4.5-inch (800 x 480 Pixels) display
1.3 GHz quad-core processor
1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable up to 64GB with microSD
Android 4.4 (KitKat) OS
5MP rear camera with LED Flash
2MP front-facing camera
8.8mm thick
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio with RDS
3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS + GLONASS
2000 mAh battery
The Samsung Galaxy Core Prime is listed in white color, and is expected to go on sale soon.
We recently reported that the Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus pre-orders will start today, October 7th in India and would go on sale from Apple Authorized Resellers on October 17th. Today both Amazon.in and Flipkart have confirmed that the the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus would be available for pre-order starting 12 noon today. Online retailer Infibeam have already started taking pre-orders for these smartphones.
Flipkart and Infibeam have listed all the variants of the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus along with the price tag, which matches with the pricing revealed earlier this week. Infibeam, who is an authorized reseller also promises to deliver the iPhones on the launch date, October 17th in selected cities.
Usually new iPhones would be available only with the Apple Authorized Resellers on the launch day. This time you can pre-order them and get it delivered to your home, instead of waiting in line on the launch day.
Aircel, Airtel and Reliance are expected to announce their iPhone 6 plans soon.
Samsung Galaxy A5 has been already leaked in photos and rumors for quiet some time now. We saw couple of photos of the Galaxy A5 along with Galaxy A3 yesterday and now a bunch press renders of the device has popped up.
The photos look quiet authentic and resemble the ones that were previously leaked last month. Galaxy A5 is seen in black and white versions in these press renders with flat edges and rounded corners. It has a physical button in the center of the area under the screen. The Galaxy A5 is expected to use premium materials like metal bodies in the construction.
The phone has an aluminium metallic frame along the corners of the device and sports a 5-inch HD Super AMOLED display. Powered by a 1.2 quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, it has 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory with expansion slot. The phone has 13MP rear camera and 5MP front facing camera. Finally, it will comes with Android 4.4 KitKat and Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.
Galaxy A5 is tipped to be priced between $400-$450 however.Samsung is also expected to announce Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A7 under its A series of smartphones.
via:Source
Nexus 6 aka Motorola Shamu is in the news again and this time it is being benchmarked at Geekbench. The phone that has made several appearances in photos and leaks since past several weeks has now appeared on the benchmarking site.
As per the benchmarks the Nexus 6 will have 2560×1440 resolution display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor and 3GB of RAM. The device is codenamed as Motorola Shamu in the benchmark and will run on Android L. These features are in sync with the previous leaks we have heard such as 5.9 inch QHD display,13MP rear camera with optical image stabilization, 2-megapixel front-facing shooter and a 3200+ mAh battery.
In the Single Core results, Apple iPhone 6 an iPhone 5s take the top spots however, the Nexus 6 beats LG G3, Samsung Galaxy S5 and Nexus 5 in this test. While in case of the dual core results Nexus 6 tops beating Galaxy Note 3 and iPhone 6. The Nexus 6 is expected to be announced on October 15 as per few reports.
via:PhoneArena
Samsung Gear S Tizen-based smartwatch has got the first web browser - Opera Mini. The Samsung Gear S is the company's latest smartwatch that can also makes calls independently. The Opera Mini on Gear S lets you enjoy web browsing from your wrist, and includes many finger-friendly features. HERE recently partnered with Samsung to release HERE Maps for the Gear S.
The Smart Page feature gives users all their social updates and the latest news on one screen, has Speed Dial with website shortcuts as large buttons, similar to the desktop and the mobile versions and has Private browsing. To zoom, double-tap with a finger, or, to get a more precise view, just pinch to zoom. A gentle swipe with your finger will take you forward and back.
Regarding the Opera browser on Gear S, Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software, said
As a lightweight but powerful browser maker, Opera has been a pioneer of making the web accessible across a huge variety of connected devices, such as the internet keyboard, the dual-screen handheld game console, VOIP phones and, now, wearable device. We are thrilled that Opera Mini will be the first browser for Samsung Gear S users to download. This is an exciting, new experience for ...
LG has announced that the G Watch R, the company's first smartwatch with a circular display would go on sale in Korea starting October 14th. It was unveiled ahead of IFA and has a 1.3-inch (320 x 320 pixels) P-OLED Display, powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and is based on Android Wear platform. It has photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor to measure heartbeats.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29YHVQASUic
It has 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage and packs a 410mAh battery. It is dust and water-resistant and can stay in water up to meter deep for 30 minutes. It has durable stainless steel frame and has interchangeable 22mm calf skin leather strap.
The LG G Watch R comes in black color and is priced at 352,000 won (US$330 / Rs. 20,200 approx). Booking for the LG G Watch R begins October 15th at local operator KT's Shop and ship on October 16th. Customers who purchase it would get discounts on purchase of Neckband headset or LG Tone Pro Bluetooth Headset (HBS-750).
Photos of gold variant of the BlackBerry Passport have surfaced. The high end smartphone from the company was launched last month in India as well as international markets.
The phone that sports a square design has golden side bezels and even the volume and power buttons are covered in gold color. A total of three photos were released by CrackBerry that shows the BlackBerry Passport in gold edition. At present no other information about the price and availability of gold variant is known.
One of the images are tagged with the word "parisrosegold", and shows a bit of a retail store in the background that includes a BlackBerry display. Paris Rose Gold is a company that has make golden smartphones for other companies. Currently, BlackBerry Passport is available in Black and White colors.
The phone sports a 4.5-inch 1440x1440 pixel resolution IPS LCD display and a 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974-AA) processor. It has a 13MP rear and 2MP front facing camera, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal memory, Expandable memory up to 64GB with microSD.
via:CrackBerry
Apple is expected to announce the iPad Air at an event on October 16. The Miachel Report is claiming that they have acquired "pictures and illustrations" of the iPad Air 2 from "sources within Apple".
The report is in sync with the previous rumors we have heard that the next iPad Air will be 0.5mm thinner that the existing iPad Air but will have the same design. Smaller changes include removal of the mute/vibration button to make the tablet thinner. Moving on, it says that the new iPad Air will reportedly come with Touch ID built into the home button. Just as rumors have indicated the iPad Air 2 will have a 2GB RAM and could feature A8 processor.
The iPad might be available in gold variant as reported earlier and could chuck 16GB variant and come in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB storage variants. Other upgrades will allegedly include a new 8MP rear-camera, HD FaceTime camera, and Apple Pay.
via:Pocketnow
Samsung is expecting a 60% drop in its operating profits for the Q3 of 2014. The South Korean company said in its latest earnings guidance that it expects to record an operating profit of 4.1 trillion won ($3.8 billion) for the quarter ended September 30, a 59.7 percent drop from the year-ago quarter.
Consolidated revenues of approximately 47 trillion won also represented a 20 percent decline over the previous year's third quarter total of 59.1 trillion. Sales fell about 20 percent as the biggest smartphone maker faces tough competition from rivals like Xiaomi and local vendors in in China and India.
Samsung has released 'reference materials' to address concerns about the current state of the company. The company is expected to have low sales this quarter owing to low sales of Samsung’s flagship device, Galaxy S5 and the company started selling the Galaxy Note 4 last month. Samsung reported a fall in profit in Q2 of 2014 and its mobile revenue also declined by 12% QoQ. It must be noted that this is just a earnings guidance from Samsung and not the actual earnings for Q3, 2014.
ZTE has announced Grand X Max for Cricket Wireless in the US. It has a 6-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display, powered by a 1.2 quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat), similar to the Grand Memo II LTE that was announced earlier this year, but this has a 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 1-megapixel front-facing camera.
It comes with apps like Kindle, Evernote and Kingsoft Office and more.
ZTE Grand X Max specifications
6-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD capacitive touchscreen display
1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor
Android 4.4 (KitKat)
8MP auto focus camera with LED Flash
1MP front-facing camera
3.5mm audio jack
7.87mm thick
3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS / aGPS
1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable memory with micro SD
3200 mAh battery
The ZTE Grand X Max comes in black color and is priced at US$199.99 without contract. It would be available from Cricket stores in the U.S. and online starting October 10th.
Sony launched the Xperia Z3 Compact along with the Z3 in India last month. It is powered by quad-core Snapdragon 801 (MSM 8274AC) 28nm HPm Krait 400 CPU clocked at 2.46 GHz power core and has Adreno 330 GPU, similar to the Z3. It has a 4.6-inch HD display and runs on Android 4.4.4 (KitKat). Faster processor makes it faster than the Z1 Compact. Check out the synthetic benchmark scores below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMX2awH9WFQ
Quadrant Benchmark
It managed to score 21389 points in the Quadrant Benchmark.
AnTuTu Benchmark 4
It managed to score 35345 points in AnTuTu benchmark 4.
Vellamo 2.0 HTML5
It scores 1880 points in the Vellamo 2 HTML5 browser benchmark and lies behind the Xperia Z3.
Vellamo 2.0 Metal
It managed to score 1275 points in the Vellamo 2 Metal CPU subsystem performance test.
Linpack Single Thread
It clocked around 401.1 MFLOPS in the Linpack Single Thread benchmark.
Linpack Multi-Thread
It clocked around 694.1 MFLOPS in the Linpack Multi-Thread benchmark.
NenaMark 2
It managed to clock around 58.7 fps in the NenaMark 2 GPU benchmark.
GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex (On screen)
It tops the GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex OnScreen benchmark by clocking 41.5 fps.
GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan (OnScreen)
It tops the GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan OnScreen benchmark too by clocking 25.4 fps.
Basemark X 1.0 HD (Onscreen)
It clocked around 32.5 fps in the Basemark X 1.0 OnScreen ...
FoneArena has teamed up with BlackBerry India once again for a new contest. This time we are giving away a BlackBerry Passport smartphone for one lucky winner and BlackBerry Music Gateway for two winners. The contest will run for three days starting from October 8th (today) till October 10th (Friday). You need to Tweet your answers with the hashtag #BBPassport, follow @BlackBerryIN and @FoneArena and include both Twitter handles in the tweet to enter the contest.
Contest Question
What is your passport to success?
Click here to go to Twitter, enter your answer and participate in the contest.
Winner of the first prize will receive a BlackBerry Passport smartphone and two second prize winners would get BlackBerry Music Gateway.
Eligibility: This contest is open to Indian residents only. One tweet per user is enough to enter the contest, but you can Tweet maximum three times a day. FoneArena and BlackBerry India employees and their immediate family are not eligible to participate.
Note: Winners will be announced in two weeks after the contest is over and the prizes would be dispatched within 30 working days after confirmation . Twitter is not a participant or sponsor of this promotion.
HTC has revealed that it has dealyed the launch of its wearable until next year. The company which is gearing up for its 'Double Exposure' event today was rumored to be working on a smartwatch that might be announced this year.
HTC's America president Jason Mackenzie shared this fact with Re/Code saying that the company originally wanted to launch a wearable device around this time, but that “it ended up just not being ready.”
"We’ve seen a lot of general purpose wearables come to market, there’s not a strong reason to wear one every day. When we come to market with our product we want to make sure the product has a strong point of view and there is a really compelling reason to strap it on your wrist"
told Drew Bamford, the leader of the HTC Creative Labs team to Re/Code.
The company further said that it will offer more details about the wearable early next year. Back in July there was a report that the HTC is working on a smartwatch that had appeared in an official video. However, the company soon dismissed the rumor.
via:Re/Code
OnePlus has announced that it has released a major OTA update for its OnePlus One smartphone. Dubbed as CM 11S 38R, the update fixes the touch screen issues and brings few enhancements.
The 206MB update for the OnePlus One improves responsiveness of the touchscreen. In addition, the typing experience has been made fluid and the update also adds a new lock screen.
Here is the official complete change log of CM 11S 38R firmware for OnePlus One:
Added method for users to report bugs directly to Cyanogen.
Added pause button during video recording.
Improved battery life.
Fixed issues with camera exposure compensation stuck in ‘auto’.
Fixed issues with ‘4G Preferred’ option not connecting to 3G data.
Fixed issues with delay in torch activation.
Fixed issues with unresponsive screen requiring reboot.
Fixed issues with static in speaker when changing volume while headset plugged in.
Fixed issues with rotation not triggering when rotated slowly.
Fixed issues with Quiet Hours / system UI causing battery drain on last day of month.
Fixed issues with camera not starting when LED torch is already on.
Fixed issues with Bluetooth volume low on connection
The update is rolling out in stages and will reach every OnePlus One owner very soon.
via:OnePlus Forum
Google has updated Play Game SDK with many features and improvements. The company has added features like real time multiplayer, material design UI and so on in the latest update.
"Game developers, we've updated some of our popular developer tools to give you a consistent set of game services across platforms, a refreshed UI based on material design, and new tools to give you better visibility into what users are doing in your games."
posted Ben Frenkel, Google Play Games team on a company blog post.
Google has added Real-Time Multiplayer (RTMP) to Google Play Games C++ SDK in order to make it easier for developers to build cross-platform games. The addition of RTMP brings the C++ SDK to feature parity with the Play services SDK on Android and the Play Games iOS SDK. A bunch of multiplayer game stats will also be offered for free that can be viewed by visiting Developer Console.
Moving on, Material Deisgn has now made its way to Play Game SDKs for Android, iOS and cross platform C++. This refreshes the UI with bold and colorful design that is consistent across all the games. Finally, Google is improving Quests as the SDKs now include default toast messages for "quest accepted" and "quest completed" events. A ...
Google is stating that it will remove the camera bug from the Nexus 5 in next update on Android. Currently, the camera bug dubbed as mm-qcamera-daemon is causing battery drain in some of the Nexus 5 devices.
The bug is causing large number of CPU cycles which makes the camera unusable and does not allow the CPU to shift into low power mode. This in turn results into high battery drain. Google had already worked on the issue in March in Android 4.4.2 update. The company is promising that it will fix the issue in next major Android release for the Nexus 5 which will be the Android L.
Nexus 5 has been facing camera bug issue for quiet sometime now. Last year Google started rolling out the Android 4.4.1 update for Nexus 5 users with several improvements and updates to camera.
via:Android Police
Samsung has launched the Galaxy Note Edge, the company's first smartphone with a curved edge screen in Japan. It is now available for pre-order from local operators through KDDI and NTT DoCoMo and would go on sale later this month. It was unveiled recently by NTT Docomo at their Winter/Spring Lineup 2014.
The Galaxy Note Edge was unveiled at IFA last month and packs a 5.6-inch (1440 x 2560 pixels) QHD Super AMOLED display that is curved on the right side that utilizes 160 pixels and gives you access to frequently used apps, alerts and device functionality even when the cover is closed with the swipe of a thumb. It is powered by a 2.7 quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat) with new Samsung UI. It has a 16-megapixel rear camera with Smart OIS and a 3.7-megapixel front-facing camera with f/1.9 aperture.
The has a S Pen Stylus, Finger Scanner for a secure, biometric screen locking feature and mobile payments, S Health 3.5, packs 3GB RAM, 32GB / 64GB internal memory with expansion slots and a 3000 mAh battery. It comes in Frost white and Charcoal black colors. Check out the hand-on below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSDz0tokYzI
Google has introduced its 'News & Weather' app for the iPhone and iPad. The app provides local news as well as headlines from a variety of categories and sources in one app along with the weather info.
The free app pulls news and content from 65,000 publications with 60 country-specific editions. News display can be customized as per preference of your topic ranging from sports, fashion, politics and so on. In case of weather, the app shows the current temperature and provides forecast for next four days.
Prior to this, the app was only available for Android. It requires iOS 7 to install, but it is optimized for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Google had previously updated News & Weather app for Android with new design and feature in August.
You can download the News & Weather app from the Apple App Store.
